THE feckless fair-weather friends who thought the office of lord mayor would be ex-Lib-Dem leader Mike Storey's ticket to oblivion, are, methinks, in for the shock of their lives.

There have been some seismic shifts in the political landscape since primary school head Storey quit as council boss having been found wanting by the standards board for England over emails about the future of since departed city chief executive Sir David Henshaw.

The duo starred in my long-running ECHO series Yes: Councillor, as counterparts to TV's Sir Humphrey Appleby and Jim Hacker.

Storey later had two other close shaves with the standards board – that he allegedly conspired to remove paid-off now forgotten Capital of Culture tsar Jason Harborow, and that he gave details of Harborow's health to the media.

No action taken. And I can vouch for his immunity on the latter, as the journalist who wrote the original article.

My fancy now is that Corporal Wearing Badly's cling-on Lib-Dems, holding power by a single seat and courting negative publicity, will lose council control to Labour in May.

That could see Storey returning as the only politician with sufficient clout to head an invigorated opposition (Corporal Badly having paid the price of all leaders who don't retain a winning ticket).

With relations between Badly and his one-time mentor now creaking, a Storey revival could also see a radical shake-up on the Lib-Dem front bench. That should be fun.

Meanwhile, with MPs back in the expenses traps, their Liverpool town hall kindergarten shadows claimed last year for 100 meetings they were not entitled to expenses for, or which they didn't attend, or which never took place.

These are the people who run our city finances from your council taxes: some clearly not capable of sorting out a receipt for five quids worth of petrol.

The mind boggles.

Royal visit should kick start terminal plans

CUNARD flagship Queen Mary 2 – towering 200ft and weighing in at 148,000 tonnes – sailing into the Mersey next Tuesday will be a sight to behold.

But the day visit by the largest ever liner to tie up at Liverpool, should not eclipse the enduring nonsense over the city not having a proper cruise terminal.

In eagerly snatching a £10m Euro-grant for providing a cruiser stop-over berth next to the Pier Head, our silly burghers missed the small print and rushed headlong into signing an agreement which forbids full-on competition with Southampton, Cork and Dublin.

Although I have oft-said the document's destiny should be the dustbin, a costly legal challenge would be disastrous.

The solution is for the city council to fully mend its rocky relationship with Peel Holdings, allowing Peel to refund the £10m and proceed at full speed with private plans for a full cruise terminal.

Murmurings about tarting up a warehouse at Langton Dock to appease some cruise companies for sailings next spring, are just a waste of time.

Langton Dock is deep within the docks system, smells foul and is next to Europe's biggest scrap heap.